We suppose that the reaction to the PlayStation 4 Pro could be described as mixed, but its sales seem to be off to a decent start. It's dominated the best sellers list on Amazon for some time now, and we've heard from a couple of retail sources that pre-orders are looking decent in both the UK and in the US. And now Sony has chipped in on the device's early numbers.
"I've been told, just before we had this conversation, that pre-orders in the UK are looking pretty good," Sony Europe chief Jim Ryan told trade magazine MCV. "I can't give you the numbers yet, but I'm pleasantly surprised." The executive added that the platform holder will have a "significant amount of stock" at launch and through the holidays.
The jury's still out on how well this is actually going to perform, but we suspect that as more comparison game footage gets out and the benefits for 1080p television owners are made more clear, it will continue to see a steady uptick right through until release. Sony has forecast PS4's biggest ever fiscal year, so it's clearly got some high hopes pinned on the hardware.
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[source mcvuk.com]
Comments 28
So do we think that every one of those pre-orders is a lost PSVR sale or a guaranteed PSVR Sale?
I wonder if anybody is sly enough to pre-order the Pro just in case their PSVR doesn't work very well when they get it next month but if it works well enough then they can just cancel the pre-order or eBay it?
Are there any games bundled in those Pro pre-orders? Amazon US only has the console for $399, which seems excessive in light of the Uncharted 4 Slim bundle for $299.
So, in general, how many of those pre-orders do we expect to see on eBay?
I just Pre-orderd mine a few hours ago. The Pro is a lost PSVR sale for me since rjejr was asking. I'm not saying I'll never get a PSVR but it won't be day one.
I would rather get the Pro day one and a 4KTV around Black Friday than just PSVR.
It goes to show that internet reactions are never representative of the general population. I was incredibly surprised at just negative people like the kinda funny guys were about it but I've been suspecting that they have been getting out of touch with a lot of gamers.
I hope developers don't start making games with hobbled performance on the vanilla PS4 down the line.
Don't be surprised sony, smartphone has teach the masses the excitement of yearly upgrade. I wish ps4 pro is more powerfull so it can play 1080p games at 60 fps though, it's okay if the price raised by $50.
@rjejr It's a lost ps vr sale for me since I can only afford one of them this year, I still want to buy ps vr though, maybe early next year if the review is good.
Since sony has plenty of stock I don't think we'll see a lot of ps4 pro at ebay.
me and my mates are getting both the headset and the pro we all have 4k tvs so were going for it .
Once people start seeing the benefits as in 1080p 60fps on most titles. Upscale 4K and Native 4K for less demanding games. The PS4 pro will sell like hotcakes. Word of mouth will be crucial after that terrible conference. But no matter what some fan boy YouTube channels will try and bash it no matter what. But the simple fact is Scorpio isn't coming out anytime soon wich means performance wise the Pro will have a huge advantage for more than a year then be able to drop the price of the Pro while also announcing the PS5 late next year or early 2018.
Decent, pretty good and pleasantly surprised.
Not really amazing reactions in a PR context.
Pre ordered my pro last weekend with a guaranteed £140 trade in value for my original ps4. Won't be buying psvr until sometime next year, I want to see at least 6 months of positive reviews before I buy one. Can't wait to see the pro working on my uhd to 👍👍
The PS4 Pro will sell well if Sony and the devs demonstrate tangible benefits for 1080p TV owners because they are the core market. Gamers want to see 1080p smooth 60fps, lush environments, increased eye candy, and a high quality anti aliasing.
They have to do it quick because they only have a year to grab as many sales as they can. Most people can only afford one console so the first to market grabs all the sales. Once the superior MS Scorpio comes out, Sony will struggle because those that can afford it will buy the MS Scorpio.
@wiiware it can play games at 1080p/60fps provided the developers actually implement it.
I pre-ordered as soon as Amazon added it to their site. It wasn't up when I first started looking but within an hour of the press event finishing, I had pre-ordered mine.
Its definitely NOT a lost PSVR sale as I had no intention of buying the headset - at least not at this point in time. Maybe when I have my Pro and VR games actually offer something I want, then maybe I will consider the headset.
@wiiware The PS4 Pro can play every game at 1080/60. The problem is that some games are built to play at 30fps and would need to be remade for 60fps. Also Sony have said that no MP game will have a mix of frame rates (in that if the PS4 can only run at 30fps, the Pro version will be limited to 30fps). Its not as simple as just making 'every' game run at 60fps. If the engine and animations were built for 30, just increasing the frame rate to 60 would look and feel weird.
What the developers choose to do with the extra power, will be on a game by game basis. A game like Rise of the Tomb Raider will be giving players up to 3 choices (2 I guess if you only have a 1080p TV). In one choice, you get a 1080p with high visual settings (better lighting, shadows etc) in another you get an unlocked frame rate. The other is a high resolution mode. Horizon ZD really only give 1 option (as far as we know), that is HDR on or off. If you play on a 4k TV, you get the higher resolution image and if on a 1080p TV, you get the higher resolution 'downsampled'.
As was the case with XB1's 7% boost, games with unlocked frame rates and/or dynamic scaling will play much better on the Pro without needing an 'update' All games going forward will also be at 1080p (min). Games like Star Wars Battlefront (900p) would need an update as that was programmed to run at that resolution but a game like Doom (which has both dynamic scaling and unlocked frame rates) would run at 1080/60 with all the settings on.
@rjejr
I've done exactly that: ordered a Pro just in case...
If the old PS4 can't handle VR smoothly, fan noise included, I'm going for the Pro, but if it performs just fine I see no reason to jump ship this early. In terms of new hardware I'm actually looking forward to Scorpio more to be honest, but that might just be me. PS simply doesn't need better hardware for what they're trying to achieve. Heck, most of their latest titles in Japan still come to PS3.
I feel Xbox on the other hand needs the power of the Scorpio to get across what they're all about; hard hitting 4K FPSs, racing and sportsgames with the volume dialed up to 11 while some of your jock friends are cheering you on as you drink tequila out of barely legal girl's belly button...
WHOOOOTTT WHOOOOOTTTT!! YIIIIISSSSSSUUURRRREEEHHH!! OOOOHHHYEAAAAAHHH BOOOIIII!!!! WHHOOOOHOOOOO!
It's shallow, but personally I'm hoping there'll be a different coloured version available by the end of the year or early 2017, the black version just looks a little dull to me! I'm probably going for a new TV before I go with either PSVR or PS4 Pro, personally. That might change in favour of the Pro, but not sure.
@hadlee73 remember not to trust a showroom. They really mess with the tvs to skew the perception.
Sounds like they've plenty of stock so I'll probably pre order soon. My PSVR pre order will most likely be dropped.
@Boerewors This comment went... In an unexpected direction.
That said, I've said a million times, but I've played PlayStation VR on a standard PS4 dozens of times now, and it works great — it really does.
@get2sammyb
Unexpected, but not totally untrue imho. I feel an upgrade for Xbox is far more necessary because of the type of first party games they have on offer and 3rd party games they associate themselves with. Xbox is more about the huge blockbusters where everything is bigger and better; the Xbox is the Michael Bay amongst consoles....
PS has a wider variety of games on offer, games of which most will be perfectly playable without having state of the art graphics. The only game that's associated with PS4 atm that has fans that will really adore more graphical spectacle is a Xbox game at heart, CoD. Most other games work perfectly fine on 1080p.
I've been lucky enough to have had some PS VR time myself and I know it runs just fine, but we've only seen some small PS made and/ or curated demos. I'm afraid not all games will run so smoothly and I even expect a game like RIGS, which ran way better than expected, to crumble under the extra load the moment it's taken out the controlled setting. I think eventually we'll need a PSpro to have meaningful VR experiences and I hope Sony won't let the old hardware hold it back; I know it's not in their official plans, but they'll have to let go of their PS4 parity requirements because else PS VR will be going nowhere.
@Boerewors So if Xbox is Michael Bay what is PlayStation and Nintendo then? I would say Steven Spielberg for Nintendo and Christopher Nolan for PlayStation
@Boerewors I guess we'll have to wait until 13th October. Sony's in for a really rough ride if the VR demos that have been shown so far aren't representative of the launch experience, though.
A really rough ride.
@MadAussieBloke truth has been spoken~
@get2sammyb I can't see Sony messing this up a la NMS. There's too much at stake. That said, as long as Driveclub VR plays like the Access PlayStation video, I'll be a happy gamer.
@get2sammyb
I still feel Sony should be targetting the various non- gaming uses for VR way more; by picking the name PS VR they've made it clear that they feel gaming is their "entrance" to the VR world, when in fact I believe it'll end up being their biggest hurdle. Gaming on current VR headsets is kinda cool, for once or twice, and then you go back to playing actual games. VR is all about experiences, experiences you can't get elsewhere or are too expensive/ too much hassle for regular folks.
Of course there should be gaming in VR and some "experiences" (hate the word, but it sums it up so nicely) can be enhanced by adding gaming elements, but the majority of the apps available on PS VR should be focusing on a way broader spectrum than they currently are. There are maybe 2 million gamers willing to spend money on VR gaming in a world where VR gaming is 10 times better as it currently is, but there are at least 100 million people interested in owning a personal cinema, in visiting live games of their favorite team, in having a front row seat at the sold out Riyonce Sweeft concert, in visiting cities all around the globe, experiencing festivals, dive in deep blue seas and fly like an eagle.... There are so many things people would use VR for, yet Sony focuses on gaming.
With Sony Pictures and Sony Music they could single handedly change how we perceive VR as customers and also make those divisions profitable again. It's not the movies or music that suck, it's the way we have to consume it; VR could change all that! $25 for the latest album of one of them popstars is a lot of money, especially with Spotify and less legal alternatives around, but if I get to be in the studio with the artist, watch him/her perform some tracks live and experience one of the videoclips as if I'm part of the crew, $25 suddenly doesn't seem that bad. If I have to pay $20 for a UFC fight I feel robbed, if I get to switch between 4 360 cameras in the top of the corners however, I'm waving my CC before the fight's even announced.
I can think of 100 ways VR could change the way we consume media, interact with people or just have fun... Unfortunately Sony is just focussing on one of them.
@adf86
Lol. Nintendo is Woody Allen: they do some nasty at times, but damnit if we don't love em
You have been warned numerous times to watch the language. Please use other words. -Tasuki-
@Boerewors barely legal
As long as they're legal the barely don't matter.
Good call on the PS3 games. I thought the latest Star Ocean looked just like the previous PS3 game. I do think will matter some on Uncharted 4, and going forward the God of War crew will probably push it to the limit where the old PS4 is barely playable - in comparison. I'm sure w/o the comparison it will be just fine though. And my wife keeps saying no to a new TV, so I still sit on the fence. I wonder how many ports PS5 will get in 4k? Surely I can talk her into 1 by then.
The $100 difference is now up to a $130 difference b/c Slim comes w/ U4 - which I need to play, unlike any FPS - and Pro comes solo. And I think/feel like/my guy tells me retailers will be more likely to drop Slim to $249 BF than Pro to $349 b/c Pro releases Nov 10, so that's still early adopters and high rollers picking it up BF, Slim will already be out 2 months by then, so on sale it goes. I'm cheap, best value wins.
Personally sticking with my PSVR. Have no need to upgrade a perfectly decent TV for a graphical upgrade, whereas PSVR offers a completely different gaming experience.
@justerthought What is the price off the Scorpio never heard how high it is. If it is fast but expensive it still wont sell.
@Splat I pre-ordered mine from Bestbuy since they actually take all the money out of your account instantly on Sept 8th. However, the only true reason I got it is for the Psvr. I cant see spending $400 on something, only to know in the back of your head that it can look and perform better. I'll probably get a 4Ktv with HDR in November, because I cant see spending $400 on something, only to know in the back of your head that it can look better.
@hadlee73 @hadlee73 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLS1zSddJRU
this guy has a pretty in depth review
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